Design of a self-reconfigurable wireless network system for modular self-reconfigurable robots

This paper presents a self-reconfigurable multi-hop wireless communication network system for the deformation control of the modular self-reconfigurable robots. The topology and scale of the network is changeable according to the different configuration of the modular robots. The self-repairing of the modular robots includes mechanical repairing and network repairing. The self-repairing capability is tested using the modular self-reconfigurable robots: Transmote. Experimental results show that the more the number of the routers in every layer of the network topology, the quicker the network recovers. The influential factors which affect the inter-robot and intra-robot communication efficiency are figured out finally. The proposed wireless communication network system is proved to be efficient for the control of the modular self-reconfigurable robots.